The Ancient Egyptian Religion is a polytheistic system of beliefs and rituals that centered worship on to the pharaoh and his specific sect of gods. The pharaohs were humans that were believed to have descended from the gods, they were believed to speak the gods will and spent large sums of resources devoting temples and monuments to the gods.
There were many different deities in the Egyptian religion, well over one hundred specific gods. Although many of these deities are related to one another some how, and many are actually the same god during different time periods re-imagined by a specific pharaoh.
The Egyptian Religion's Creation story goes as so:
At first, there was only Nun. Nun was the dark waters of chaos. One day, a hill rose up out of the waters. This hill was called Ben-Ben. On this hill stood Atum, the first god. Atum coughed and spat out Shu, the god of the air, and Tefnut, the goddess of moisture. Shu and Tefnut had two children. First, there was Geb, the god of the earth. Then, there was Nut, the goddess of the sky. Shu lifted Nut up so that she became a canopy over Geb. Nut and Geb had four children named Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys. Osiris was the king of the earth and Isis was the queen. Osiris was a good king, and he ruled over the earth for many years. However, everything was not well. Seth was jealous of Osiris because he wanted to be the ruler of the earth. He grew angrier and angrier until one day he killed Osiris. Osiris went down into the underworld and Seth remained on earth and became king. Osiris and Isis had one son called Horus. Horus battled against Seth and regained the throne. After that, Horus was the king of the earth and Osiris was the king of the underworld.
Although there are slight differences where you hear the story told. One of the main differences is the use of "Atun" over the use of "Ra", like mentioned earlier these gods could some times be interchangeable even though they were not always the same. Gods were often unified to help the different kingdoms see eye to eye.
Ma'at
Another important piece of the Egyptian religion is the concept of Ma'at, which is a sort of Order that keeps everything in the universe together. Without Ma'at the Egyptian people believed that everything would fall apart and cease to exist and that this force was threatened by disorder and it was societies duty to maintain the order.
Writings
There were many types of important writing in the Ancient Egyptian Religion, some of which included pyramid and funerary texts, prayers, ritual texts, and myths. The pyramid texts were often written on walls of the inside of pyramids to help protect the pharaohs transition to the other world after death. The book of the dead is a very popular funerary text. Hymns, prayers, and ritual texts were commonly written on papyus and kept in temple libraries. Written accounts of mythology allow much of what we know today to have been discovered. A lot of the myths are transferred from these other writings.
Temples
Temples are an important part of the Egyptian religion, at the height of the civilization they were present in most towns. In early kingdoms they were small in size but during the later kingdoms grew to massive structures almost the size of small cities. The Temples consisted of multiple sections, some of which only the pharaoh or high ranking priests could enter. Temples were built to honor the gods but not all gods had their own temples. Temples were often the center of economic activity in a region, providing many people with jobs.
Afterlife
The afterlife was very important in the Egyptian religion, this is one of the main reasons pyramids were built to help the pharaohs and their earthly possessions be ushered over to the other world. They believed that a person had two types of energy, a "ka" and a "ba". The "ka" was a life force that ceased to remain after death, and the "ba" was your spirit that stayed with you when you died. At first only pharaohs could pass to the realm in which the "ba" would become one with the gods, but eventually everyone was believed to posses a "ba". They would be given judgment in the Weighing of the Heart to see if they were worth of upholding Ma'at.
Conclusion
In anthropology it is important to understand what the relationship of religion is to the people that worshiped it during that time. The ancient pharaohs were referred to as gods themselves but was this because they needed a way for the people to follow them unconditionally, or did they actually believe them to be decedents of the gods. Originally the pharaohs were viewed as being infinitely superior to the people gaining a special place in the afterlife, but this was amended in the early kingdoms probably so that the people could feel more related to the gods. Temples although they were holy places were houses to much of a towns economics. It seems that most of the practice of ancient Egyptian religion was to dictate the was the lower classes should behave everyday. Ma'at was a belief that if you followed the gods you would keep the world in balance and that would in turn not destroy the world, this sounds a lot like karma or the Christian doctrine of treating your neighbor as yourself. It seems to me religion even as far back as the Egyptian civilization was just a way to keep the ignorant in line. The Egyptian religions way of creating local gods and having pharaohs be the basis of gods allowed the people to witness the gods work on an earthly realm. This made it more believable for the people and allowed a closer relationship to the gods themselves.
The original gods were that of animals and were only evolved beyond that after pre-dynasty times. These animal cults were prevalent in early societies because animals were an easy outlet for people to view what they didn't control, animals and nature. These are both very common among religious premises. Anytime something uncontrollable happens in religion it has to do with nature and animals, The snake in the garden of Eden, Noah's flood, many of the native American creation stories, among others. After a time once the civilization evolves enough that they feel they have some control, some type of entity or entities must be subjected in where the animals once were to restore a sense of relationship to the gods. Egyptian religion did this pretty effectively considering it lasted around three thousand years and was only eventually phased out by a different religion that was more unified, something that the Egyptian religion attempted to do over and over again.
Ancient Egypt was at the head of its time as far a unification of city-states was. The only problem was that it had so many different gods and goddesses per state, and every time they re-instated a new rule they had to get the people to forget their old gods and obey this new pharaohs gods. The easiest way to do this was to create either a merger god, much like Amun-Ra, or a god that embodied all the previous gods but was different such as a relative of the previous gods. This was all a way for the pharaohs to relate to the people in a way to gain popularity and order. Ma'at was an interesting doctrine in the fact that it was to keep order, but it may have been civil order not some spiritual order of the universe. Even in the creation story, helping each other was rewarded and betrayal was punished this basic understanding was the perfect basis for controlling the lower classes.
Ancient Egyptian Religion
The Ancient Egyptian Religion is a polytheistic system of beliefs and rituals that centered worship on to the pharaoh and his specific sect of gods. The pharaohs were humans that were believed to have descended from the gods, they were believed to speak the gods will and spent large sums of resources devoting temples and monuments to the gods.
There were many different deities in the Egyptian religion, well over one hundred specific gods. Although many of these deities are related to one another some how, and many are actually the same god during different time periods re-imagined by a specific pharaoh.
The Egyptian Religion's Creation story goes as so:
At first, there was only Nun. Nun was the dark waters of chaos.
One day, a hill rose up out of the waters. This hill was called Ben-Ben.
On this hill stood Atum, the first god.
Atum coughed and spat out Shu, the god of the air, and Tefnut, the goddess of moisture.
Shu and Tefnut had two children. First, there was Geb, the god of the earth. Then, there was Nut, the goddess of the sky.
Shu lifted Nut up so that she became a canopy over Geb.
Nut and Geb had four children named Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys.
Osiris was the king of the earth and Isis was the queen. Osiris was a good king, and he ruled over the earth for many years.
However, everything was not well. Seth was jealous of Osiris because he wanted to be the ruler of the earth. He grew angrier and angrier until one day he killed Osiris.
Osiris went down into the underworld and Seth remained on earth and became king.
Osiris and Isis had one son called Horus. Horus battled against Seth and regained the throne.
After that, Horus was the king of the earth and Osiris was the king of the underworld.
Although there are slight differences where you hear the story told. One of the main differences is the use of "Atun" over the use of "Ra", like mentioned earlier these gods could some times be interchangeable even though they were not always the same. Gods were often unified to help the different kingdoms see eye to eye.
Ma'at
Another important piece of the Egyptian religion is the concept of Ma'at, which is a sort of Order that keeps everything in the universe together. Without Ma'at the Egyptian people believed that everything would fall apart and cease to exist and that this force was threatened by disorder and it was societies duty to maintain the order.
Writings
There were many types of important writing in the Ancient Egyptian Religion, some of which included pyramid and funerary texts, prayers, ritual texts, and myths. The pyramid texts were often written on walls of the inside of pyramids to help protect the pharaohs transition to the other world after death. The book of the dead is a very popular funerary text. Hymns, prayers, and ritual texts were commonly written on papyus and kept in temple libraries. Written accounts of mythology allow much of what we know today to have been discovered. A lot of the myths are transferred from these other writings.
Temples
Temples are an important part of the Egyptian religion, at the height of the civilization they were present in most towns. In early kingdoms they were small in size but during the later kingdoms grew to massive structures almost the size of small cities. The Temples consisted of multiple sections, some of which only the pharaoh or high ranking priests could enter. Temples were built to honor the gods but not all gods had their own temples. Temples were often the center of economic activity in a region, providing many people with jobs.
Afterlife
The afterlife was very important in the Egyptian religion, this is one of the main reasons pyramids were built to help the pharaohs and their earthly possessions be ushered over to the other world. They believed that a person had two types of energy, a "ka" and a "ba". The "ka" was a life force that ceased to remain after death, and the "ba" was your spirit that stayed with you when you died. At first only pharaohs could pass to the realm in which the "ba" would become one with the gods, but eventually everyone was believed to posses a "ba". They would be given judgment in the Weighing of the Heart to see if they were worth of upholding Ma'at.
Conclusion
In anthropology it is important to understand what the relationship of religion is to the people that worshiped it during that time. The ancient pharaohs were referred to as gods themselves but was this because they needed a way for the people to follow them unconditionally, or did they actually believe them to be decedents of the gods. Originally the pharaohs were viewed as being infinitely superior to the people gaining a special place in the afterlife, but this was amended in the early kingdoms probably so that the people could feel more related to the gods. Temples although they were holy places were houses to much of a towns economics. It seems that most of the practice of ancient Egyptian religion was to dictate the was the lower classes should behave everyday. Ma'at was a belief that if you followed the gods you would keep the world in balance and that would in turn not destroy the world, this sounds a lot like karma or the Christian doctrine of treating your neighbor as yourself. It seems to me religion even as far back as the Egyptian civilization was just a way to keep the ignorant in line. The Egyptian religions way of creating local gods and having pharaohs be the basis of gods allowed the people to witness the gods work on an earthly realm. This made it more believable for the people and allowed a closer relationship to the gods themselves.
The original gods were that of animals and were only evolved beyond that after pre-dynasty times. These animal cults were prevalent in early societies because animals were an easy outlet for people to view what they didn't control, animals and nature. These are both very common among religious premises. Anytime something uncontrollable happens in religion it has to do with nature and animals, The snake in the garden of Eden, Noah's flood, many of the native American creation stories, among others. After a time once the civilization evolves enough that they feel they have some control, some type of entity or entities must be subjected in where the animals once were to restore a sense of relationship to the gods. Egyptian religion did this pretty effectively considering it lasted around three thousand years and was only eventually phased out by a different religion that was more unified, something that the Egyptian religion attempted to do over and over again.
Ancient Egypt was at the head of its time as far a unification of city-states was. The only problem was that it had so many different gods and goddesses per state, and every time they re-instated a new rule they had to get the people to forget their old gods and obey this new pharaohs gods. The easiest way to do this was to create either a merger god, much like Amun-Ra, or a god that embodied all the previous gods but was different such as a relative of the previous gods. This was all a way for the pharaohs to relate to the people in a way to gain popularity and order. Ma'at was an interesting doctrine in the fact that it was to keep order, but it may have been civil order not some spiritual order of the universe. Even in the creation story, helping each other was rewarded and betrayal was punished this basic understanding was the perfect basis for controlling the lower classes.
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